The debates over ratification of the United States Constitution stimulated the number of pamphlets by proponents and opponents of the new frame of government.

Of the Antifederalist pamphlets, two were of special importance because of their extensive distributions and widespread readership. The work of an author who employed the pseudonym “Federal Farmer”. The use of pseudonyms was a common practice in political publications of that day and the task of matching authors with their pseudonyms is something of a cottage industry among historians. But the identity of Federal Farmer did not, it seemed, present a problem.

In 1974, Gordon Wood disputed the attribution presented in the two Courant letters, though he did not suggest who the author of the letters may actually have been, assuming that Lee was not. Two scholars, Walter H. Bennett and Steven R. Boyd, took exception to Wood’s argument. Robert H. Webking recently took the next step toward resolving the controversy when he suggested, in an article in the William and Mary Quarterly, that Melancton Smith, a New York Antifederalist, was the author of the letters. Webking makes a careful analysis

Wood’s argument have been criticized by Walter Bennett and Steven R. Boyd. Bennett, editor of a resent edition of the Farmers Letter, did agree that the evidence supporting Lee’s authorship of the letter “hardly seemed sufficient to justified continuing this attribution.” But, he believed there was a number of weaknesses in Wood’s arguments. He argued that the views toward the Constitution shared by Lee and Farmer were “strictly similar”. An accurate summation, but what Bennett did not mentioned was that in letter V, the Farmer said he was “dropping the subject” so that he could “ revise and correct ideas respecting “ the Constitution. Letter V, is dated 13 October 1787 and Farmers did not resume his discussion until 25 December 1787. Lee’s letter was written three days after the Farmer said he was dropping the subject. In his letter to Randolph, Lee presents his proposed amendments as well as his strongest criticism of the new plan.

The arguments presented supporting Melancton Smith as the author of the Farmer’s letter are by no means conclusive. But when combined with Robert Webking’s arguments, they present a stronger case than the one set forth supporting Richard Henry Lee’s authorship of the letters. Gordon Wood was correct in stating that “barring some unforeseen manuscript discovery, the authorship of the Letters from the Federal Farmer will probably never be definitely known.” One conclusion that can be made is that Richard Henry Lee should no

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